I’m now safe and secure at Fort Eustis for a month of work with a unit to which I used to be assigned. That didn’t come without a very interesting journey to get here. I left my mom’s house in Warner Robins early yesterday morning and hit the road with just about 6.5 hours of sleep on uncomfortable bedding. She is still furnishing her house, so I didn’t have many options.

I stopped over in Atlanta where I dropped off a number of items into my small storage unit, visited the the unit I will be serving at after this one and then had lunch with a friend. I hit the road and landed in Salisbury, NC, where I had planned on crashing on a friend’s couch.

When I found out he snorts cocaine recreationally (as if there’s another real use for cocaine), I decided Hampton Inn would be a better place for me to crash. While doing cocaine is illegal, I have no direct moral objection to its use. People are free to destroy themselves as they wish. But unlike other, milder addictions like smoking or alcohol, snorting blow is inviting disaster like few others. For him to do it in front of me without even asking if I was cool with it, and to be completely toasted by the time I returned from dinner … it shows a lack of respect. But not as much for me, but for himself! He has nothing more valuable to live for but the simple pleasures he finds in cocaine, alcohol and the arms of girls willing to let him use them for an appearance of affection.

I don’t hate him, condemn him, or disdain him. If anything, I pity him. He deserves our prayers — not to stop such self destructive behavior, but to find a reason worth living that makes such behavior too costly and counter to personal growth toward peace.

But now I’m on the Virginia Peninsula down the way from the original Jamestown Settlement (you know, from those history things), and up the road from Newport News, Hampton, the greater Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, also known as Hampton Roads. This is a wonderful area of the country. I was stationed here twice before — once at Langley AFB and at Fort Monroe. My brother has been stationed across the water at Norfolk Naval Station two separate times, and I’ve made a number great friends here in the area I likely will maintain for the rest of my life.

It is good to return here.

The front door is pretty much the only way in, and you can’t walk on the grass. This view is fourth floor above the main entrance walk.

However, I must express my astounding surprise at how poorly this military lodging was designed. I’ve stayed in a number of military lodgings, from open bay barracks to multi-room suite, and I’m comfortable in either. But since when did you build lodging with a parking lot easily more than 60-100 feet from the building, then build the sidewalks and drive-ups in such a way that you have to zig-zag to get into the building? Oh, and don’t forget, this is an Army base, no walking on the grass. It’s the general’s grass.

So much for efficiency. Good room, though.

And Chik’fil’A. I’ve already talked about taking the ability to approve/disapprove away from the government and leaving marriage, itself, solely in the culture, and legal unification as a blind contract between two willing citizens. Read these four posts if you want to know more on that.

• A Case for Civil Union
• The Necessity of Government Neutrality
• End the Need for Government Approval
• Muppets, Chik’fil’A, and Real Liberty

Photo posted on Facebook Aug. 1 by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. (Credit: Facebook)

Chik’fil’A has every right to support what they want. The real problem isn’t what they believe or why, but that there’s a battleground to be fought on at all. One group wants pro-gay, the other group wants anti-gay, and the government is that battle ground. Remove delineations of gay/not-gay and boil it to a citizen service, not based on gender, skin color or economic point of view. Period. Not complicated, but we want to inject our culture into the issue. Leave culture out of Government! Let government remain culture neutral and do only what can serve all cultures.

If Chik’fil’A wants to live in an anti-gay culture, go ahead. Remove its ability to lobby for control by removing the control to be lobbied for. That two-edged sword also removes homosexuals from the ability to lobby for equal treatment, as if government should care if you’re straight or gay. Government should only care that you’re a taxpayer, and offer you a service based solely on that fact. Nothing more, nothing less.

Is that so complicated?